A lot of talk about back road safety in BC lately;
There is a Forestry Road that crosses Vancouver Island to access the Bamfield Marine Station. This is the only access to a marine station and the end of the West Coast Trail. It is 88km worth of logging road maintained and monitored by Western Forest Products.
There isn’t much at Bamfield, population is 179. The main thing in town is the marine station that is partnered with University of BC and hosts classes and field trips throughout the season.
Here are some pics of the road;
and some of the traffic you will meet;
So there was an accident this month, and terribly two students died when their bus went off the road in the dark in the rain..
That sucks, no argument there.
Now there is an outcry of alarm and outrage - including politicians vowing to improve and fix this road, people literally coming out of the woods telling how they warned everyone, and change.org petitions being sent to the Prime Minister to pave the road;
I’ve been on this stretch of road before, I was in a class of grade twelve kids in 1996 filling two short buses. On our way over the road we met a forestry pickup being driven by a kid doing a beer run. He locked up the brakes when he saw two buses coming at him and ended up hitting the front bus and hanging off the side of the bridge. Pretty sure it ruined his day.
Unpopular opinion time, I don’t think they should fix this road. I think more education on gravel/forestry road driving, hiring local experienced bus drivers, or even having a specific coach company with properly equipped buses doing these trips.
This part of the west coast doesn’t need another paved highway. If you look at highway #4 from Port Alberni to Tofino, a paved highway on the north side of the Barkley Sound, it still has accidents, fatalities, and is generally a slow cautions drive.
I guess this is progress, having everyone able to take the lowliest commuter car into every and any part of the Province. I’m sure they will be extending the cell network out to the end next. More towers, more lines, more screens.. bummer.